Forgotten [Raakshyan Series Book 1]

Chapter 6

I rolled over and felt the heavy paw on my back. I smiled and looked at the time. There was five minutes until midnight.

Turning onto my side, I watched Kero. Again, remembering that I would have died without him. Even now, I need him. I couldn’t possibly be happy without him. He had become a part of my life, a big part. Not only was he my best friend but he was a part of me, a part of who I was.

My right hand automatically went up and touched my left shoulder. The scar was still there, it always has been. No matter how many scar treatment products my mom gave me, it never went away. I actually didn’t want it to. I wanted this to stay with me forever, so I would always remember the day Kero and I met.

I softly touched his face and then stroked it with the back of my hand. His fur was unbelievably soft and felt so familiar. I pulled myself close to him, putting my own arm around his body. I kissed his cute, pink nose and then snuggled up close to him.

Before falling asleep again, I looked at the time. Twelve o’clock. I turned back around, smiled and kissed his nose again. “I love you.” I whispered, watching his peaceful face. “And Merry Christmas.”

I slept well that night and woke up feeling absolutely amazing. As I stretched, I realized that Kero was already awake and gone. I got off my bed and was about to call him when I noticed he was sitting in front of the window.

“Good morning!” I said, cheerfully.

He turned around and smiled. ‘Good morning.’ He said. ‘And Merry Christmas.’

There seemed to be something up with his smile. “Is something wrong?” I asked as I stretched some more.

Kero shook his head and walked up to me. ‘No, nothing.’ He said. ‘I hope you slept well. Today is going to be busy.’

I then remembered that I was hosting a party. “Shoot! I squeaked. I ran to the telephone and checked to see if anyone called.

1 NEW CALLER the screen said.

I stared at it. “One?” I asked. I then checked who it was and realized it was my brother’s friend, who he had invited. “Wait, what?” I said. “No one called back!”

Kero shrugged. ‘Maybe they all came home late and knew you would be sleeping. So they didn’t even bother. Maybe they will call you later today.’

“But the party is later today!” I whined.

Kero sighed. ‘Don’t worry too much about it.’ He said.

“What if they don’t come?” I asked, worried.

Kero stared at me. ‘Have they ever let you down?’ He asked.

I thought for a second, “No.” It was true. My family has always made me happy.

Kero nodded. ‘Exactly. So why don’t you get ready and then go downstairs and get the last of the food prepared.’

I nodded as I stood up and walked into the bathroom.

After getting out of my pajamas, taking a nice shower and putting on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, I walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. My brother, who was holding the phone between his shoulder and his ear, had already started with the chicken. I stared as my brother peeled the fat off the legs.

I made a gagging noise, which made my brother turn around and smile. I was the only one in my whole family who wouldn’t dare to touch uncooked meat. Sometimes my mom asks me, “What are you going to do when your husband asks you to make chicken, or beef for him?” I would always reply with the same response: “If he wants meat, he can cook it himself. I’m not touching a thing.” This always made everyone laugh.

I’m not a vegetarian. Actually, I can’t live without meat. But I only touch cooked meat, not uncooked.

“Yeah, I gotta go.” My brother said. “Love you too.”

“Was that Maya?” I asked.

My brother nodded. “Can you put this away for me?” He asked, moving his eyes towards the phone, which he couldn’t touch.

“Sure.” I said as I took the phone from him and put it away. “Is she coming?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, but she’ll be a little late. She’s got a violin performance, which she just invited me to.”

“You’re going to go?” I asked.

“I have to.” My brother said as he turned around to look at me.

“Who’s going to help me with everything?” I asked.

Aathavan smiled. “Hey, it’s at five, the performance be will done by seven. I’ll be back before you know it and I’ll bring her with me when I come back.” He said.

I frowned. “Yeah. Whatever.” I was upset, even though I totally understood that he really had to go. She really needed his support, I mean, it was a big Christmas performance.

My brother tilted his head. “Don’t be mad.”

“I’m not.”

He walked up to me and hugged me.

I started to scream.

Aathavan laughed.

“EWWW! EWWW!” I screamed, trying to pull away. “Don’t touch me!” His hand smelt like the nasty chicken guts he was holding.

“Then say you aren’t mad at me.” He said, between laughs.

“I did already!” I screamed.

“Say ‘Aathavan, I’m not mad at you.’”

“I’m not mad! I’m not mad! Now let go!” I screamed.

He held the chicken guts close to my face. “Nope, I said say ‘Aathavan, I’m not mad at you.’ say the exact words.”

“Aathavan, I’m not mad at you!” I screamed, trying to pull away.

“Say it like you mean it.” He laughed.

“Aathavan!”

He let go, laughing hysterically.

I slammed my hand onto the kitchen counter to keep me steady. I was panting like I had just run a marathon. “You jerk!” I yelled, angrily.

He held the guts out at me. “You said you weren’t mad, don’t make me throw the whole chicken at you next time.”

I frowned at him.

He turned around to pick up the chicken.

I screamed and ran out of the kitchen.

My brother continued to laugh hysterically and then he yelled, “Merry Christmas by the way!”

At about noon, I started to freak. “The party starts at four!”

My brother changed the channel. “Calm down.”

Aathavan had finished with the chicken about five minutes ago and I had finished with arranging the table with all the treats I baked. I had also finished wrapping the tons of presents I had bought, and Aathavan was done wrapping his.

After about an hour, my cell phone rang. I had a text.

My brother looked to his right at the table with my cell phone on it. He picked it up and flipped it open.

I really didn’t mind if my brother went through my texts, I told him everything so there was nothing to hide.

“Chris…” He said.

I froze. Oops, I guess I hadn’t told him everything.

He looked at me.

“Yeah, I sorta forgot to tell you…” I started. “He invited me over to his place to celebrate New Year’s with him.” I said.

“Chris?” He asked.

I nodded.

Kero, who was sitting on my lap in his cat form, snorted.

“And according to this, you’re going.” He said.

It wasn’t really a question, but I nodded.

My brother sighed. “Isn’t he the kid that hangs out with Adam’s younger brother?” He asked.

Adam, one of the worst kids in the area. His younger brother, James, even worse. He was seriously bad news. He does drugs, m*******a, cocaine, heroin, you name it, he does it. I always wonder where he gets it all from. But, that’s not all, he also drinks. And he de-virgin-ifies girls all the time. And he’s failing all his classes because he skips all the time, sometimes I wonder why he even comes to school. Plus he’s been to jail, more than a couple times.

“Yeah.” I said. “He is.”

“And now, I do not give you permission to go.” He closed my cell phone and put it in his pocket. “If he asks why you didn’t reply, just tell him your bro borrowed your cell for a bit.”

I stared at him. “Wait, what?”

“Aathy, you know way better than that. Don’t waste your time with fools like him.”

Shocked, I pounced on my brother to get my cell, knocking Kero onto the floor. “Aathavan! You know me better than that!” I yelled. “You know I won’t hang out with bad guys!”

He held me away easily and looked at me. “Then what’s up with this guy?” He seemed a little angry.

Kero hissed as he got back to on his feet. ‘Ow! Was that necessary?’

I ignored him. “Chris isn’t like his friends!”

“That’s a little hard to believe.” He looked back at the TV.

“Aathavan! That is so not fair! You can’t judge him just by looking at his friends!”

He turned around and looked at me. “I’m not going to allow my younger sister to hang out with a friend of a failing drug addict who’s gone to jail before and f***s girls as a hobby!” His face was hard. “I know how these people are Aathiray. I didn’t fall out of the sky a couple of days ago.”

My mouth fell open. “Do you honestly not trust me? Do you honestly think I’m not smart enough to know between a good guy and a bad guy?” I asked, getting annoyed.

“Whether I trust you or not, dad would never say yes to letting you go! And you know that!”

I frowned. He was right, Dad would never let me go. My dad barely ever let me go to parties. “But dad’s not here!” I said.

Aathavan stared at me. “Are you serious?” My brother hated when I didn’t listen to my dad.

I nodded. I knew he had a good reason for acting like this but he didn’t have a good enough reason for not believing in me.

After staring at each other for a long time, he sighed. He pulled my cell phone out of his pocket, threw it at me and left.

Ignoring his obvious anger, I opened my cell phone and read the text.

Hey! Merry Christmas!

Remember, New Years eve, my place, 11:00pm.

C ya.

I smiled to myself and replied.

Thanks! Merry Christmas to you to!

And don’t worry, I won’t forget.

About two minutes later, my cell phone rang again.

Awesome.

Kero sighed. ‘I agree with your brother.’

“Leave me alone.” I muttered.

Kero shook his head as he jumped back up onto the couch. ‘Why don’t you figure out what you’re going to wear?’ He suggested.

I nodded. “Good idea.” I jumped off the sofa, walked to my room and opened my closet. I stared at all the clothes for a while. “What do I wear?” I asked.

Kero looked at me. ‘Check the dress between the blue one and green one.’ He said, tilting his head to the left.

I walked to the left side of my large closet and then looked for the two dresses. After searching through my mess of a closet for a while, I finally found it. “Yes!” I squeaked. I grinned at Kero. “You know me too well.”

He grinned back, showing all his sharp teeth.

“Maybe I should try it on, it’s been a while since I’ve worn it.” I said as I walked out of my room and into the bathroom. It took me about five minutes to put it on and when I came out and showed Kero, he smiled. ‘It looks nice.’

I walked to my mirror and looked at myself. The dress was a black, knee length dress that sparkled when I moved. It had a square neck and short sleeves that covered my shoulders. I spun around and watched my dress puff up a bit. “How’d you know it was there?” I asked Kero, fixing up my dress.

He shrugged.

I looked at him and then smiled. Well, whatever he did, he managed to find one of my favourite dresses. I sat on the stool in front of my dresser and combed my hair. “What should I do with my hair?” I asked.

Kero looked at me for about a minute. ‘Comb it, and tie it into a half ponytail or whatever you call it.’

And I did. I brushed my hair and tied it up. “Nice?” I asked.

Kero nodded, he then jumped up onto my dresser and used his mouth to open the little jewelry boxes. ‘You should wear these.’ He said as he pulled out a simple pair of hoop earrings.

I put them on, and reached out for a nice silver necklace. “Is this ok?” I asked.

He nodded. He jumped off my dresser and changed into a tiger. ‘Stand up.’ He said.

I stood up and looked at myself in the mirror. I didn’t look half bad. “Do I look ok? Is everything good?” I asked Kero.

He tilted his head to a side and then said, ‘Bend down a bit.’

When I bent down, he lifted his paw up and using his sharp claws he carefully pulled a few strands of my bangs to the sides of my face. ‘There.’ He stepped back. ‘You look beautiful.’ He said, smiling. He seemed quite proud of himself.

I smiled at him. “Thanks!” I said as I bent down and kissed his nose. I then remembered that I had some more work to do. “We have to put all these presents under the Christmas tree!” I turned and looked to the corner of my room where all my presents were piled.

This year, the tradition had changed. We’ll be opening the gifts in the evening rather than in the morning.

I picked up as many presents as I could and took them down the stairs. Kero, as always, helped me out. I neatly placed them under the Christmas tree and then went back upstairs to get the rest and after finishing with my presents, I decided to take my brothers presents down too. I walked to his room and knocked on the door.

“Yeah?” He said. I could still hear the anger in his voice.

Frustrated, I opened the door and walked in.

He turned around, buttoning up his shirt.

“Where are you going? Didn’t you say Maya’s performance is at five?” I asked.

He nodded as he pulled out his very nice smelling gel and started fixing up his front hair.

“Well, where are you going?”

“Jack and Kiran are bored. They asked to come over early.” He said, not looking at me. I knew for a fact that he was still mad. He never acted like this.

“Why are you getting dressed? And you didn’t answer my question.” I said. He normally didn’t put on decent clothes if it was just his friends coming over.

“I’m going to the mall to buy some drinks. You forgot to get those.” He turned around and picked his wallet up off his desk.

“Oh.” I said. “Where are all your presents?”

He pointed at his closet, still not looking at me. He then walked out of his room.

I sighed and picked up as many presents as I could. Luckily for me, most of his presents were really small, so I got most of them down the first time round. I walked to my brother. “Make sure you buy Coke and Crush.” I said.

He nodded. “Cream soda?” He asked.

“Yup. Buy orange too, Aunty Seretha likes that.”

He nodded again. After putting on his shoes and jacket, he walked to the door. “See ya.” He said.

I smiled. “Bye.”

Before he left, he sighed. He turned around and looked at me. “You look gorgeous, by the way.” He said, looking defeated.

I grinned. “Thank you!” I said.

He smiled. “If Jack and Kiran come open the door for them,” he paused, “and tell them that I told you to tell them that if I find out they were flirting with you, I’ll kill them.”

I laughed loudly, and then nodded. “I will.”

He laughed too and then he left. That was another thing about my amazing brother. He couldn’t stay mad at me for a long time.

I smiled to myself as I walked to the living room. Kero sat there, looking out the window. He seemed a little tensed. “Something wrong?” I asked, just like I did this morning.

He turned around immediately. ‘No… it’s nothing. Sorry.’